Title: A New Start

Word count: 647 words.

Author: chymom

Rating: G

Spoilers: All seasons.

Characters/pairings: Colby, David and Liz.

Beta: Paranoid_woman and Darkness Be Mine

Disclaimer: I don't own any thing to do with the Numb3rs people.

Author's notes: I am going to be taking a few lines from each episode and writing a story using them. If you would like to use the lines in your own story, please feel free to do so. Anyone can say the lines... They just have to be the same lines.

These are from season 5 episode "First Law."

Charlie: You don't like her.

Don: I think you can do better.

Charlie: For Instance?

A New Start

Colby had been out of work for most of this week. David's volunteering to check on him was how he found himself now seated on Colby's love seat.

"Man, she left me for a car salesman . A car salesman! What am I doing wrong?" Colby asked between coughs. The woman that Colby had been seeing off and on for the last few months had told him that she was leaving him for good.

As Colby kept coughing, David handed him a box of tissues.

"Colby, you're not doing anything wrong. You just need to be careful who you…."

Colby cut him off before he could say more.

"You don't like her." David had made it no secret when he had met her that he didn't like her.

"I think you could do better."

For a minute, Colby didn't know what to think.

"For Instance?" It was more of a challenge than a question.

David thought about it for a minute. Did he really want to get into this with Colby right now?

"I don't know. Maybe someone who knows what you go through on a daily basis. What about Liz?"

No one made a sound for a minute.

"What about Liz?" Colby was not getting what David was saying to him.

"Why don't you ask Liz out? She understands what we do on a daily basis. Besides, she dated Don. Dating you would be easier on her."

Again, nothing.

"I would be worried that she would keep doing something. Since she did date Don," Colby said.

"What would that be, man?"

Colby laughed for the first time all week.

"I hope she wouldn't tell me the differences between Don and I."

David joined Colby in laughing as soon as the words were out of Colby's mouth.

"That would do a number on a man. To find out his boss is better at pleasing women than he is."

The night went by fast after that. Colby told David that he would be in to work on Monday. When Monday came, Colby was surprised that he didn't have more work on his desk than David did.

"I have taken some of your work over since you were sick, Granger." It was Liz who was coming towards him.

The talk that he and David had had the other night hit him.

'What about Liz?" That's what David had asked. 'Why not?' It's not as if he didn't like her when she had first joined the team. Before Colby knew about her and Don, he wanted to ask her out. The only thing different now was that they now had a strong friendship. The worst is she could say is 'no' and hate me. Right? Colby asked himself.

"Liz, would you mind showing me what's the most important in this stack?" he asked.

She stared at him for a second but then took pity on him.

"The top three are for Don. The next ones are for the ongoing fraud case.." Liz was suddenly silenced by Colby's hand on her arm. Colby could see something in her eyes but he was not sure what it was.

"Sorry," Colby told her as he removed his hand from her arm. "Liz, after work, do you have time for a thank you dinner?" It took her a few minutes to answer. Colby was getting himself ready for a punch when she answered.

"Sure, why not? We can leave after work." She took a few more minutes to show Colby what he had asked for before returning to her own stack of files.

For the first time in a long time, Colby and Liz both seemed happy. Don, Nikki, and David all saw it, but no one but David knew what it meant. David knew that Colby had made up his mind for a new start. He only hoped it would work out for them both. A new start was just what they needed.